You began your career as an actor. When did you decide to branch out into fight direction as well?

It happened for me the way it happens for many of us (in the industry): I got cast in a show, Romeo and Juliet, in a small theatre out of New Jersey. They needed a fight choreographer, and didn't have one. I had a little training, and so I said, “I can do that.”

That was my first show, and I did everything I could possibly imagine (laughs), the fights were so much longer than they should have been! I’m sure I thought they were fantastic…and I realized that this was an actual job, something I could do all the time: creating what’s always been my favorite part of the show, where the action is at its peak, the drama is at its climax. “If I can live in that moment all the time,” I thought, “why not?”

You choreograph for operas and musicals as well as plays like Zombie. Is your process different depending on the genre/style of the piece?

Every production is completely different, but the important questions are always “what are the characters trying to accomplish” and “how can the story best be told.” Sometimes it’s an opera, or an American musical, or Shakespeare. The style of the piece always informs these questions, but it always comes down to the characters and the story.

As for process, it’s always different depending on how the director likes to work, and the process of the play, and what that allows us to do.

Is the goal always to make the action seem as lifelike as possible?

Not always! Everything has its own requirements. But when we’re talking about violence, we have to start with the moment, and the truth of the moment. The logical moment. So even if it ends up being this big, stylized, avant-garde movement piece, I still try to figure out what it would look like if it was happening with real people, in a realistic interaction. Then, I transform it from there.

It’s rare that a show requires total realism — as it turns out, realistic violence is not very interesting to watch. It’s too fast, it’s too hard to follow. So we take that and breathe theatrical life into it to make it accessible for the audience.

What’s most intriguing or inspiring to you about Zombie: The American?

A few things, really. The title, for one thing (laughs). And it’s so topical — zombies are the monster du jour! So that’s automatically interesting. The audience is going to come in with a lot of prior knowledge about zombies, and they’re going to be really smart about it, and they’re going to expect things. The challenge is to give them some of what they expect, but then also something totally new and different. We’re going to give them some aspects they can relate to, and then a flipside. Not to spoil anything, but one thing we decided to do is explore the more “human” quality of zombies…

The script, too, is inspiring. It’s fearless. Robert doesn’t shy away from saying what he wants to say, in the way he wants to say it, and it’s absolutely great. Watching the story morph over the past month, and become even more engaging, has been fantastic.

Also, it’s been so great to work with these actors. Fight choreographers often have these ideas of what they could create on stage in a perfect world. It’s really rewarding to find a cast that can go that distance with you, and make that “perfect world” even better.

Do you have any advice for those interested in pursuing fight direction professionally?

Do your classwork, do your homework, do your training. Learn about fighting, and know how to do it. But you have to learn about everything else in theatre, too. You can’t be a good fight director if you don’t know about props, directing, lighting, set, etc. Your job is going to involve all of that, sometimes intimately. Don’t be a “fight” person. Be a theatre person! Know more than you feel like you should know about theatre.

Students I’ll have in class will often say something like, “that’s not realistic.” And you’ll have to remind them — this isn’t realism. We’re trying to tell a story to an audience that doesn’t always know the language we’re speaking.

What’s your dream fight choreography gig?

To have a cast that will go the distance with you — like I do for Zombie — that will take the artistic risks with you and say “yes.” Those are my dream jobs. I’ve had that at the university level, the professional level, all levels. You need a group of people in a room to say “yes.” That’s what makes it worthwhile.